Yesterday, I was busy trying to get updates from my homeland, the Philippines. At this time of the year, it is facing Nature's wrath, in the form of tropical cyclones. Sometimes the weather disturbance is just moonsoon rains. But in the past few years, the intensity of moonsoon rains have been getting stronger and stronger, induced even more by tropical cyclones.
Right now there is one tropical cyclone called Trami, in the Philippine vernacular it is called Maring. It is to the north of the islands but it is pushing and inducing the moonsoon rains. Imagine rainfall coming down an inch or so an hour, and overnight getting over 24 inches. The photo updates I see is just so heart wrenching. A big deluge everywhere, and people have nowhere to go, still has to make life go on. Floods barging into their homes, sometimes no home anymore left standing. Incessant rains still coming in. When they talk of flooding there, they do not talk of inches of water..it is now being measured in feet, chest deep, over 7 feet..unbelievable flash floods! The destruction the country had in 2009 from Typhoon Ketsana is happening again, and they say it feels much stronger.
Most people in our homeland has nothing left after this disasters. All we have there left is our faith to get us through in the toughest and hardest times of our life.
And this is just the early wave of the rainy season there. Seeing and reading about their travails is just so hard. We feel helpless about it, till the weather clears up. It is a perennial problem in the Philippines, you would think we should all be veterans in handling this type of situations..but no, it will always be hard to face..like we do one step forward, and once the weather goes very bad, it makes us go two or more steps backward.
In the meantime, we can only offer prayers of hope, of endurance, of strength, the calamity has to end..but till the rains stop, it will be very tough living for my family and friends in the Philippines, and to all affected there.
So to all who will read this blog, my simplest request, please include prayers for my homeland. They need all the prayers they can get. I firmly believe prayers moves mountains..and above all things, as painful as this calamities happen, there is always a silver lining later. I have always believed Our Lord will never give us something we cannot handle. But in the meantime, a little prayer will go a long, long way.
Pings...am referring to my Pinguiculas. Actually there is a third one, but I did not get it in this photo, since it is in my orchid growcamp. But let's talk about these two.
The one on the left is obviously happily growing and much bigger. The other one to the right is way smaller, almost ready to go downhill. And the big contributor to the healthy Ping is seen on the supply of gnats stuck on its leaves. Nothing like a good dose of yummy flying delights for this one. I got these plants early this year and still learning as I go how to grow them.
The one on the right is smaller since it has not been able to capture much while I placed it outdoors, and I guess it did not like too much sun either. So from there I learned to just put them in bright light area.
These are very easy to grow carnivorous plants, at least not too picky in the type of water to use. Just give them tap water, and bright light, and they are good to go. They do have periods when they are not in carnivorous mode. But once they are back in the grind..beware flying gnats..meet your maker on these plants.
The other fun thing with these plants is that they also have lovely blooms. This photo is from the other one grown in my orchid growcamp when it bloomed last Spring: a dainty beauty amidst deadly sticky leaves.
Well, the two earlier Pings have not made any blooms, maybe they will just do it next Spring. In the meantime...got to help feed the smallest Ping...youhoo gnats...come out come out wherever you are!
This is the first year I am growing a vandaceous orchid. Have always read how this particular group of orchids are high moisture, high light orchids, warm growing and I was afraid I do not have the right conditions for this one, especially come winter. Rather than get frustrated, I have decided not to grow one. But last June, I came across this lovely one called Vanda coerulea. Fell in love right away with its bluish/purplish blooms that makes that lovely color hues depending on the light it receives. The vendor told me this particular Vanda is a cool grower so winter here in Cali will just be perfect for it. Now I like that! I was also surprised it is being grown in bark, I normally see Vandas in baskets with no media at all.
So here is its photo when I got it in June:
Summer came with its heat wave and I was so worried for this plant, knowing it is a cool grower, so I have been giving it daily watering and misting. The blooms lasted for about 2 weeks, which was not bad considering the heat that was in my growcamp. I have not removed the plant from its container, seeing it seems happy there. I have only been seeing 2 root ends peeking from below:
Usually I am quick to repot any orchid that I brought home, but for this one I bidded my time. And in another forum we have this orchid as part of our growing project. Good timing! I would now be officially growing it to rebloom.
Seeing the other vandas in the project, I got curious and motivated to unpot this orchid to really see how the roots are growing inside. To my surprise, the orchid is in a net pot inside the black container. And I can see the thick roots inside.
So seeing this, I decided to remove all the bark and totally remove it from the exterior black container..it looks much better! I cannot take myself to remove the roots from the net pot, one of the roots has managed to squeeze itself in to a hole and if I force it out, will just break it..so keeping it there..looks happy anyways.
So I initially planned to keep it hanging inside my growcamp, but my research says this is a high light orchid as is typical with vandas..and I realized I can put it right beside the fountain. Will keep it really cool, getting a lot of breeze and hopefully some good moisture, and will get good shading too during the hottest part of the afternoon by one of my other taller plants. So here it is once more in its final set-up..hopefully it thrives well and I really want to see blooms come Spring. So far after it has bloomed, it has made a new leaf, and there is another new leaf coming out from the center, so I guess it is happy where it is.
Another Fall-like day in August! Hooray!
Got my windows open, letting the cool breeze come in..especially enjoying it as it comes in to freshen up my Phal and Paph orchids. Got some new ones which I am trying to grow, part of an orchid growing project I joined in at another forum. So hopefully I will be successful with them.
My Hoya multiflora aka Hoya shooting star has an active peduncle with buds. For awhile it seemed to have slowed down during the warmer days. I guess it likes feeling cool. I am quite a newbie with Hoyas, and I am glad this one is such a trooper growing indoors. For awhile I thought this one blooms only in Spring..I guess I am wrong..it will bloom whenever it wants to, or maybe preferably when it feels cool. I have been reading extensively about it, and I came across one posting on another plant forum that said this one can be on standing water literally. Ok, at first hesistant to do that, but I tried it and it works. It just cannot seem to have enough of it. I am thinking it has got something to do with our relatively dry and lower humidity in summer. This plant wanting more humidity, and the only way it can get it is to sit on standing water.
I have three other Hoyas outdoors right now, and I was thinking if my Hoya indoors is seeking more humidity, what more of the other three. Though outdoors, the three are in the shadiest side of my patio. Learned it the hard way, seeing how the three are getting severely sunburnt. Eventually they recovered, whew! The three are Hoya carnosa Krimson Queen, Hoya pubicalyx and Hoya kerrii variegata. Now the leaves of these three are more succulent-like unlike that of the Hoya shooting star. So to be on the safe side, not going to put them on standing water, but stepping up watering and misting this summer. And so far, the three plants are responding well. Finally seeing new leaves forming, growth improving and one of the Hoya kerrii variegata has resumed growing its vine-like stem and surprise..I think I finally see a couple of peduncles! Well, keeping fingers crossed that it is indeed a peduncle..have been hoping for one, and always ending up later on getting a leaf instead hahaha!
Well, part of this blog too right now is to see if my photo uploading is better. In my previous blogs, the photos does not get clickable once dragged and dropped into the blog..I though that was normal...never had problems uploading on the regular forum threads. Apparently it can stay clickable even in the blog..okay..so what am I doing wrong? The only thing I can see is the browser, usually I am using Google Chrome..hmm..maybe the blog pages prefer Internet Explorer..so let's see if it works..
Aha! I was right! Now my photos are clickable too...yey! Just have to remember to use IE on the blog..but on the threads I can continue with Google chrome..hmmm..oh well..not a biggie..I just hate my IE it always crashes on me..so I have been using chrome.
Okay..heading out to the garden..got to enjoy more of this awesome fall weather in August!
We are having such an awesome week today weather-wise..for some reason it feels more like Fall than summer in August. Even the trees are making known how they feel..littering our yard with leaves..if I have not been looking at a calendar, I would think it is Fall. Even the temps have cooled down significantly. Temperature right now at 82F, cool and breezy..fun-tastic garden weather! I like this weather reprieve..gives the plants a chance to recover from the soaring 90's to 100's we have had during June and July. Though I am still dreaming of some rain..even a drizzle please..but alas, it is summer after all..so that precious liquid is not in the horizon..just same old water from the pipeline is what's available.
Every morning, as I go out to see what's going on in my little garden world, I try to find any new growth or any critters that maybe playing hide and seek from me..maybe more hide, otherwise they get the water squirt from me hah!
And this morning...see which one I found...hiding in between the lavender anouk leaves..
going closer..do you see it yet?
and there it is..little grasshopper..my regular resident..usually by the hymenocallis, and this time cleverly camouflaged by the dried up lavender leaves..talk about good self-preservation skills!
Anyhow..I am feeling good today..will not give him a squirt..letting it pass by me..after all, it also deserves a place under the sun :-)
